When comparing AdiIRC vs Pidgin, the Slant community recommends AdiIRC for most people. In the question“What are the best IRC clients for Windows?”AdiIRC is ranked 4th while Pidgin is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose AdiIRC is:

It works perfectly with Windows 10, has all the needed functions like:
1 - handle all irc:// links.
2 - start with windows.
3 - start minimized.
4 - close to tray icon when pressing X(close button).
5 - it can open all the channels in one window or open each channel in new windows (it is up to you).
6 - tons of options to pick up from.

Pros

Pro

It has all needed features

It works perfectly with Windows 10, has all the needed functions like:1 - handle all irc:// links.2 - start with windows.3 - start minimized.4 - close to tray icon when pressing X(close button).5 - it can open all the channels in one window or open each channel in new windows (it is up to you).6 - tons of options to pick up from.

Pro

Actively developed

AdiIRC is constantly being developed and improved. It's among the most actively developed IRC clients nowadays, with a great beta team behind it. The changelog shows multiple substantial releases every month.

Pro

Free

It's a free IRC client supported by donations.

Pro

Receptive dev

Feature requests, suggestions and bug reports get prompt feedback.

Pro

mIRC themes support

miRC themes also works well in AdiIRC.

Pro

Lightweight

The client weighs less than 1MB.Low CPU usage. Almost no CPU usage, in fact...

Pro

Non-disruptive installation

Configurations, scripts and snippets are saved within the installation folder, allowing you to easily move them to a different installation. It also means that nothing is changed in your system.

Does not create registry keys.Does not create any other folder than it's own on any other location.Even when the installer is used, you can make it portable by just moving the folder around, don't need to worry about anything else.

Pro

Simple Layout or Complex Layout

You choose, Simple or Complex layout. Check the screenshots section in here.

Pro

Portable

A portable version is also available in the download section. It can be run without installation allowing it to be run off of external devices such as USB sticks.

Emoticons

Pro

Built-in spell checker

Spellcheck for over 120 different languages is available. Full list of languages can be found here.

Pro

Multi language interface

GUI translation available in several languages with contribution by users around the globe in an online web interface found here.

Pro

It has a notification window built-in

(unlike hexchat which needs to manually add a script)

Pro

Ability to save themes, including custom icons into a single file

Pro

Support for a wide range of additional chat services

Pidgin not only supports IRC, it also supports plenty of other services such as AIM, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ and plenty of others. This way, you can have all of your conversations in the same app and won't have to deal with multiple chat windows being open.

Pro

Free and open source

Pidgin and its code is completely free and open source. Pidgin has no ads and no features behind a paywall.

Pro

Cross platform

The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX.

Pro

Convenient notification features

Like other quality IRC clients, Pidgin features notifications that the user can set in order to have a variety of things happen when the users is mentioned, such as an audio cue or changing the system tray icon.

Pro

Highly customisable with plugins

Pidgin not only has a large plugin library built-in, but also an array of third party plugins for a variety of functions.

Cons

Con

Bad proxy support

Supposedly supports proxies but it can be difficult to get it to work with some proxies. HexChat works with it, but not AdiIRC.

Con

Unintuitive interface

If you come from a mIRC, Xchat or Hexchat background, the interface seems unfamiliar and complex.

Con

Ugly defaults

Ugly defaults with only one theme preinstalled.

Con

Not working

Con

No native VoIP support

While there are plugins there is no built in support for VoIP in Pidgin which is time consuming to implement instead of being baked in from the jump.

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